Newspaper Page Text
Page 4— Wednesday, January 12, 2022, The True Citizen
OPINIONS
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LOOKING BACK
{this week in Burke County history}
10 YEARS AGO - JANUARY 11,2012
The Waynesboro Police Department expressed concern
after taking three realistic looking BB guns from local teens.
The guns were designed to resembled automatic pistols.
Leroy Dewayne Whitfield was sentenced to 20 years in
prison for the stabbing death of John Larry Preston, Sr. in
the Club Elite.
Civil rights icon Dr. Joseph Lowery spoke to a group of
residents near Plant Vogtle on environmental justice issues.
25 YEARS AGO-JANUARY15,1997
Johnny Jenkins was re-elected chairman of the Burke
County Board of Education and Ellis Godbee was retained
as chairman of the County Commission.
Burke County Tax Commissioner Cynthia McManus an
nounced plans to publish the names of delinquent taxpayers
in the newspaper. She said back taxes amounted to about
$1.2 million.
John C. “Chris” Sylvester, president of A&W Oil Com
pany, was elected to the board of directors of the Georgia
Oilmen’s Association.
50 YEARS AGO-JANUARY 12,1972
M.G. Mike Griffis was named as the new manager of
Radio Station WBRO. He had previously been employed
with WJAT in Swainsboro.
Two Waynesboro policemen, Lt. H.S. Brooks and Sgt.
Bobby Jenkins resigned “under pressure.” Jenkins, who left
for a position with the Sylvania Police Dept., said he would
“not work under a dictatorship."
70 YEARS AGO-JANUARY 17,1952
Margaret Jones of Midville and Dan Wilson of Waynesboro
were among 77 students named to the Dean’s List at Georgia
Teachers College.
Local youth groups received over $1,000 in donations
from the Burke County Fair, sponsored by the Waynesboro
Rotary Club.
“Pagan Love Song” starring Esther Williams and Howard
Keel, was playing at the Waynesboro Drive-In.
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P.O. Box 948 • 629 Shadrack Street
Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Telephone: (706) 554-2111 • Fax: (706) 526-4779
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Roy F. Chalker Roy F. Chalker Jr.
Publisher Publisher
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Feature Writer/Reporter/Associate Editor; Tracy Parker,
Office Manager; Martha Chalker, Advertising Sales; Roy
F. Chalker, Jr., Printing Manager.
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BEN ROBERTS
benroberts@bellsouth.net
Two days after Christmas,
someone sent me a picture of a
dumpster site on the northeast
end of the county. A dozen
dumpsters sat overflowing,
trash bags falling out of the top
and piled on the ground in front
and around the dumpsters.
It’s a familiar sight after
Christmas in Burke County.
The Burke County Board
of Commissioners has been
discussing how to address the
continuing issue of the county’s
garbage for years now. Those
discussions have included the
pros and cons of dumpsters,
county-wide curbside pickup
and manned collection sites.
Opinions are all over the place,
as opinions often are, including
among the five commissioners
themselves.
Compounding the difficulties
of this discussion, however, is
another factor that has to be
addressed: the Burke County
public.
My wife doesn’t like for us
to use the word “stupid” in our
house, but I’ll be frank, some of
“If you don’t like the weather
here, just hang around a few
minutes. It’ll change.”
The first time I heard that
saying was shortly after I
moved Out West. It didn’t
take long to find out that the
adage was very accurate. I was
standing at a phone booth in
Denver (Older readers might
need to explain to the younger
ones what a phone booth is...
or was.) talking to Mama. After
we had talked for a while, she
put Daddy on the line. Daddy
never was a phone talker and
whenever he came on, after the
greetings, I always knew what
his first words would be.
“How’s the weather out your
way?”
Always the farmer, my Dad
dy.
That particular day, when I
had dialed home, it was a sunny
and warm July day so I relayed
that report to Daddy. Then he
asked me about my job and
while I was telling him the lat
est, the sky suddenly got much
darker. I looked up just in time
to see the clouds open up and
the torrent begin. When it rains
our citizens suffer from a seri
ous case of it. If you doubt that,
swing by a couple of dumpster
sites this weekend, and you’ll
see all the evidence you need.
I once passed a dumpster that
had a refrigerator sticking out of
it. Another time someone went
through the trouble of stuffing
several dumpsters full of limbs
from what appeared to be a fair
sized yard clean-up. I’ve pulled
up to sites to find items arranged
in front of dumpsters like a yard
sale in case someone could get a
little more use out of something
before it heads to the landfill. I
passed a dumpster this weekend
with a pair of old tires stacked
inside the fence.
I guess one could argue these
items were at least dropped at
an actual dumpster site. We
haven’t even mentioned the
bags of trash, appliances and
junk thrown out along dirt roads
and wooded lots throughout the
county.
As a reminder, all of these
instances are against Burke
County ordinances and punish
able by fines that could reach
the neighborhood of $1,000.
I’ll also point out, these
dumpsters don’t empty them
selves. They’re dumped into
typical garbage trucks with
compactors. Remember that
refrigerator - it couldn’t fit in
that truck. Which means some
body, most likely some poor
guys from the Burke County
sanitation crew, had to physi
cally unload that fridge and
those limbs. They have to pick
up the tires, trash bags and other
things stacked on the ground
and physically load them in
something else.
That costs time and man
hours, which costs taxpayers
money.
What makes this even more
ridiculous is that the county
landfill is open six days a week:
Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5
p.m. A typical pickup load of
junk is going to cost you less
than $10. You back up to the
designated spot and drop the
stuff on the ground or toss it in
a container. Somebody else will
handle it from there. It doesn’t
get much easier than that.
And if the refrigerators,
couches and mattresses went
to the landfill instead of in a
dumpster, there would be more
room for those bags of house
hold garbage to go in the dump
ster rather than on the ground.
I have long blamed my par
ents for the cruelty of raising
my siblings and me to pull for
the Braves, the Falcons and the
Bulldogs. I have suffered more
heartache since my childhood
from those three teams than any
fan should ever have to endure.
As much as I enjoyed Geor
gia’s National Championship
win over ‘Bama Monday night,
I’ll admit to being just as re
lieved that I wouldn’t have to
feel that terrible, sinking feeling
of “we almost had it” again.
It’s been a long time coming
and I expect those of us who
have been waiting for such an
occasion to take our time relish
ing it. Lord knows we certainly
paid our dues.
Speaking of
the University of
Georgia, if you’ll
allow me to brag
SEE
BIRD DOG,
6
Don Lively
it Colorado, it rains hard and
it rains cold. Within seconds I
was soaked and shivering and
when I told Daddy what had
happened and that I had to head
for shelter he just chuckled and
said for me to call back soon.
Don’t like the weather? Just
hang around a few minutes .It’ll
change.
Since I’ve moved back to the
Blessed South, I’ve learned that
the old saying applies around
these parts just as much as it
does out in the Rockies.
A week or so ago I was sit
ting on my porch swing on the
west porch. I don’t spend nearly
as much time there as I do on
my north porch because the
west is usually too hot or too
cold, but that day it saw dang
near perfect. The temperature
was somewhere in the mid
seventies. It was partly cloudy,
or partly sunny, depending on
who’s describing. There was
a very gentle, balmy breeze
barely moving the leaves still
clinging to the trees and the
ones scattered on the ground.
My worthless porch dog Lucy,
AKA Loose E, was at my
feet, preferring that spot to her
heated doghouse. The pleasant
weather had even fooled some
birds into coming back out to
serenade me with their tweets
and chirps.
JUST WAIT
Dang near perfect.
Exactly one day later at the
exact same time I stepped out
onto the exact same porch to
retrieve a package that the mail
man had left. I was immediately
struck in the face by a mini
tornado that smacked leaves
and debris into my eyeballs.
Another gust whipped straight
up the pantleg of the loose
UGA Bulldog pajama bottoms
I was wearing. When I say up,
I mean all the way up. That was
rather unpleasant. The trees
were bending and the remain
ing leaves from the day before
had been stripped away. The
birds were gone. Lucy had ap
parently retreated to underneath
her heat lamp since she was
nowhere in sight.
What a difference 24 hours
can make in our neck of the
woods.
I didn’t complain.
After all, it’s winter.
It’s supposed to be cold.
And, while I know that I’m in
the minority within my group
of friends and kin, I prefer cold
weather to hot.
I’ve said many times, I can
put on enough layers of clothes
to get warm in the winters of
the South, but I can’t take off
enough to get cool in the sti
fling , engulfing, soul-snatching
heat and humidity that we expe
rience for a few months every
summer.
If I could have my druthers,
I’d go back to what the doom-
sayers who told us back in the
70s were saying, that we are
headed toward “global cool
ing”. By the way, those are
the same folks, or at least the
same ilk, telling us that now it’s
global warming that we need to
worry about. Of course, they
were full of it back then and
they still are. Only God decides
the weather.
But I digress.
If I could choose, I’d go for
cooler.
Think about it for a minute.
When it’s chilly you can
have a nice fire in the fireplace
or hrepit.
When it’s hot, you sweat.
When it’s cold you can wear
hoodies and fleeces.
When it’s hot, you sweat.
When the temperatures drop,
you can make chili, the greatest
of all comfort foods, several
times a week.
When it’s hot, you just sweat.
I rest my case.
But, if you disagree with me,
that’s fine.
Just hang around a few min
utes...
Well, you know the rest.